YA Reading Musings

I’ve read a couple of decent YA novels in the recent past. One I got at a library sale, and it ended up being somewhere down in the series – so I should give it a better shot by reading the first couple of books. The second was Inkheart by Cordelia Funke (soon to be a major motion picture).

Now, I like the concept of these books. The first series is The Grimm Sisters, and there are a TON of them. I read the 4th book – which was probably the mistake, since it’s the crisis of faith book (I assume) for one of the main young characters.

Inkheart puts the main young character into several very dark situations.

Both are perfectly good and cool stories. A fairy tale world living among “normal”, and a family who can read things out of books. AWESOME premises.

Maybe I’m not really cut out for YA, though. Maybe I’m more out of touch than I think with “the younger generation” or I have less patience with almost teenage girls – but dude, there were so many times I wanted to reach into the book and smack the characters.

Seriously. And the characters were both 10/12 year old girls, and I just wanted to smack ’em. The older girl in the Grimm books… if the characters in the book weren’t starting to see she was turning into a biotch, I wouldn’t have given the book the chance to finish. However, it was a difficult read.

And Inkheart may end up being a better movie because it’ll move a bit faster through the “wallowing” and petulant sections. And maybe they’ll make the aunt a little more likeable (though she did have some of a turn around), but I liked the younger BOY in it a lot better.

You know, I know Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden weren’t necessarily “realistic” teenage/YA heroines when I was kid, but I remember YA characters being stronger than what I’ve read. Especially in fantasy stuff. Put in scary and dangerous and sad situations — but these went through large periods of whining and petulance.

I have that enough in my life – heck I do it enough in my life – I don’t necessarily want to read it. Even if it’s a natural occurrence. Granted, there were some good reasons, but I didn’t come away with great desires to see what other adventures these girls get into.

Why is that? Knowing I read the Grimm out of “context”, I’m willing to give that series another chance. I might read the next Funke book just to see if she continues the characters or does something else, but I’m not rushing out to check ’em out.

I know I need to check out more YA – since I’d actually considered delving into some of it. But is this a typical trend? Or am I just too old — after all, according to the news this morning, there’s only 70 days until my next big birthday… It just made me wonder. That’s all.